Media mogul Rupert
Murdoch has suggested that Barack Obama was not a “real black” president in
a tweet praising Republican candidate Ben Carson on Wednesday night.

Murdoch, who has repeatedly praised Carson in recent months, tweeted: “Ben
and Candy Carson terrific. What about a real black president who can properly
address the racial divide? And much else.”

He then directed
followers to an article in New York
magazine that he said showed “minority community disappointment” with the
president’s record.

However, his earlier tweet directly implied that Obama, whose mother was a
white American and whose father was a Kenyan studying in the United States, did
not deserve to be classified as African American. Both of Carson’s parents were
black and born in the United States.
Murdoch touched upon an old critique of Obama that the president is removed
from the African American experience because none of his ancestors were slaves
in the United States. In his 2004 Senate race in Illinois, Obama was able, in the words of The New
Republic’s Noam Scheiber, to use his “exotic background to neutralize race
as an issue”.
However, Obama has long identified as
black and spoken frankly
about the African American experience and the problems posed by racism in the
United States.
In contrast, the Republican presidential candidate has hesitated to view
issues through a racial lens, and has, for example, criticised Black
Lives Matters activists for “creating strife”.
During the first presidential
debate in August, Carson, an acclaimed neurosurgeon, shared an anecdote with
moderator Megyn Kelly to explain this.
“I was asked by an NPR reporter once why don’t I talk about race that often,”
said Carson. “I said: ‘It’s because I’m a neurosurgeon.’ And she thought that
was a strange response.
“I said: ‘You see, when I take